Your Maine Coon Guide

The go-to book on cat genetics calls them 'rex mutants' or 'rexoid mutants'. Sounds like an alien creature. They are referring to cats with curly coats due to the presence of an inherited genetic mutation. There are some well-known rex cat breeds such as the Selkirk Rex (cat in sheep's clothes) and Cornish Rex. There are others. Surprisingly the Maine Coon can also have a curly coat as the book I mention, Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians , states, "Rexed kittens with a recessive mechanism of inheritance have also been reported in the Maine Coon and colorpoint longhair (Himalayan)." Rexed Maine Coon. Picture in public domain. This is not a good picture in terms of quality but this is unsurprising as photos of this cat are exceedingly rare. The go-to website for information about rexed cats is Sarah Hartwell's messybeast.com as she is the best qualified in the UK (the world?) on cat genetics. She mentions that curly-coated Maine...

What is the American Shag ?! No, it is not describing a passionate encounter between two Americans. I think that's why the name was dropped 😃. You might be able to guess that it is an alternative name for the Maine Coon . The Maine Coon cat actually has a lot of different names in its history such as the: American Coon Cat Maine Trick Cat American Longhair American Forest Cat American Snughead It appears that in the early days, somewhere between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the cat fancy struggled a bit with how to name this cat and they eventually settled on the "Maine Coon", which surprises me greatly because it is a horrible name (by today's standard at least).  Shaggy coat of the Maine Coon inspired the American Shag name. Image in public domain. Well, the first bit of the name is good but the second bit is ridiculous and the name as a whole now has become objectionable because of the second part, which has racist connotations. Anyway, the second part mig...

I have seen some very misleading articles on this from leading websites including Maine Coon Central. 'Ear tufts' refer to the long, stiff hair strands that sprout from the tip of the ear flap. It is hair outside the ear flap and therefore plays no part in preventing dirt and debris from entering the ear canal as stated by Maine Coon Central.  Fantastic ear tufts on a young ginger tabby and white Maine Coon. Photo: Facebook (believed). Debris is stopped by what the cat fancy call 'ear furnishings' which is the hair inside the ear flap.  Ear tufts are purely decorative for the domestic cat and the Maine Coon. All domestic cats have ear tufts but for nearly all of them they are very slight and hardly visible sometimes. So why do Maine Coons have enlarged ear tufts? It is because the breed standard insists on them. Here is the CFA breed standard: EARS : Shape: large, well-tufted, wide at base, tapering to appear pointed. Set: approximately one ear’s width apart at the base...

All of us admire the statuesquely impressive massive Maine Coons made famous by the internet's social media websites. They sock you in the face with their sheer size and lion-like, or human faces. Yes, we have seen those extraordinary human-faced Maine Coons from Europe. The MC (Maine Coon) has developed into the top 3 most popular cat breeds. I would expect the breed to be the world's most popular in coming years. Super, human-faced Maine Coon bred by a Russian but at what cost to health? Image credit: see image. Alright, let's enjoy humankind's creation of the MC. Yep, they are a human creation. When you see the stunning MC internet celebs you are not seeing the original MC that happily lived on a farm on the east coast of America. They were tiny and ordinary, almost dull by comparison to today's monsters. The MC cat show winners look rather sad compared to the huge MCs we are used to seeing . You are seeing a 'product' of human ingenuity which is designed...

The answer, very positively is yes, of course. You are mating a Maine Coon cat with a Bengal cat which is entirely feasible. It has been done and the resultant animal would be described as a "Renegade" or a "Pantherette".  The former is described as "experimental". In other words, physically, you can mate a Bengal cat with a Maine Coon cat, but the resultant animal will not be accepted by the cat associations, and it doesn't matter which cat association you are talking about, but it will look like a cross between a Maine Coon cat and a Bengal cat. As present I can't find a photo of this hybrid domestic cat which is why I have the image below. Maine Coon Bengal cat cross is possible but is there a point? Image: MikeB However, what is the point of creating a hybrid between two very distinct cats which have their followers and fans, and which attract many people. If you mate a Bengal cat with a Maine Coon cat and call the "product" a Renegad...

 Yes, Maine Coon cats can be black under all breed standards in those of the CFA and TICA. Here is a good example: Black Maine Coon photograph by Helmi Flick. This cat is not jet black as we see in the Bombay. Although the lightness in the coat on the chest is due to the light from behind the cat shining through the hair strands. The fact is that this 3rd most popular cat breed in the USA is recognised in all colours and divisions of the traditional category. This translates to an enormous range of coat colours and patterns. I have a page which lists them!  Please click this link to see it . But if you want to see the CFA breed standard for the Maine Coon which lists the entire range of coat colours and patterns please click on this link . Most early Maine Coons from the early 1900s were brown tabbies. Many people still prefer tabby Maine Coons as they look the most natural as this cat was a farm cat originally before they became pedigree cats. Over time other patterns and col...

In 2022 the Maine Coon (MC) is in the top 3 most popular cat breeds and rightly so. They have a great appearance and big is best for a lot of people who are in the market to adopt a cat companion.  It is hard to believe that in the mid-20th century (1950) the breed was declared extinct! That was probably a guess and an exaggeration but clearly there were very few Maine Coon cats in the USA at the time. Maine Coon. Showing the ruff around the neck, the lynx-tipped ears and the general size. This is a tabby Maine Coon which are very popular. The ruff is amazing on this cat. The photograph is in my opinion in the public domain. Before that moment, the last Maine Coon to win at a cat show was in 1911, 40 years earlier. This sharp decline is all the more mystifying because at the first North American cat show held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 8, 1895, a female tabby MC, Cosey, won the best in show.  Cosey was owned by Mrs Fred Brown who was presented with a silv...

Although the information that I am reading, which is a study from 1999, is outdated I am sure that the trend reported 20 years ago is still in place today and therefore feel justified in referring to this study. Dutch bred Maine Coon from the Numa Coon Cattery Amsterdam. Photo: the cattery. The scientists conducted a survey of the Dutch cat fancy. They assessed the number of registrations by the cat clubs participating in the foundation 'Overleg Platform van de Nederlandse Cat Fancy'. The Dutch cat fancy accepts 34 different cat breeds which is actually less than the CFA and substantially less than TICA. They found that the number of "Longhair and Exotic Shorthair litters decreased by 9%'. Litters of Maine Coons, Birmans, British Shorthairs and Norwegian Forest Cats increased. The Abyssinian, Siamese and Oriental shorthair cats remained static in terms of popularity. I am deducing that if more litters are registered, more cats are being created in order to feed the mar...

People ask, "Are Maine Coons like dogs?" And the INCORRECT response of many websites which focus on this cat breed is that they are, indeed, dog-like. These websites give the impression that all Maine Coons behave like dogs. This is obviously ridiculous. Interestingly, by the way, there are some Maine Coons which are as big as dogs if not bigger so those Maine Coons in respect of size are like dogs 👍. But this is not the point. People are asking whether Maine Coons behave like dogs. It is a poor question. It is probably a reference to playing fetch. But this is a not an exclusively canine behavioural trait (working dog trait). What does dog-like mean anyway? Does it mean that a cat is friendly and likes human company? That is normal for all, socialised domestic cats. Does it mean that they are trainable? All domestic cats can be trained using positive reinforcement. The question is poor in any case. There is an overlap in canine and feline behavior so all cats have some cani...

You will see some wonderful self-coloured Maine Coons: Chocolate Maine Coon. Chocolate is one of the basic self colours (solid colours) according to Robinson's Genetics. Picture in the public domain on Pinterest. None of the world's experts tell us why solid cat colours are called 'the selfs'. I'll have to decide myself (excuse the pun). 'Self' means self-coloured and the term 'self-coloured' is not only used in the cat world - specifically in the cat fancy. It is used, for instance, in the textile business where it means 'having a single and uniform colour'. The same meaning as in the cat world. It means 'having the natural or original colour'. This, I believe, is the reason for the terminology. It is a reference to the original colour coming from the 'self' i.e. the individual cat before potential modification through selective breeding such as making the coat bicolour (a self or solid colour plus white due to the presen...

Maine Coon cats were exhibited in semi-informal shows as early as the 1860s in America. That's quite interesting because it is before the first formal cat show in England which was in 1871 at Crystal Palace, south London. They were very popular and were frequent winners. You may know that the first American cat show (formal) at Madison Square Garden resulted in a Maine Coon winning the show. The cat was a brown tabby owned by Mrs EN Baker. MAINE COON HISTORY TIMELINE As the cat fancy developed and cat shows became more sophisticated, more imported varieties of cats came into America and they had long pedigrees. Their breeding was more sophisticated. They were cats of uniform colour without white markings. This created a vogue and the Maine Coon's popularity declined. They disappeared from shows altogether for a while. Early Maine Coon. Completely different to the modern version. Photo in public domain. Persian breeders frequently outcrossed to Maine Coon cats because they we...

The difference between the Maine Coon and the RagaMuffin is very similar to the difference between the Maine Coon and the Ragdoll. This is because there is not much difference between the Ragdoll and the RagaMuffin. And the reason for that is because the initial breeders of the RagaMuffin were a splinter group who were originally breeding the Ragdoll. They split off from Ragdoll breeders sometime, as I understand it, in the 1980s. They did so because they felt overly controlled by Ann Baker who founded the Ragdoll breed. Picture of RagaMuffins RagaMuffin cats . Photos by Helmi Flick. If you click here   you can read about the difference between the Maine Coon and the Ragdoll. I will add information about the difference between the Ragdoll and RagaMuffin in general terms. Both these breeds are quite large cats but the major difference is in what is allowed by the cat associations for their coat colour/pattern. Picture of Maine Coon Maine Coon Creme Soda . Photo: Helmi Flick. Ragdol...